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Life Lines: 7 Poets for Oxfam reading September 26


Life Lines: 7 Poets for Oxfam

Autumn Poetry Reading
Tuesday 26th September, 7-10 pm
Hosted by Todd Swift & James Byrne

Since 1980 Elaine Feinstein has lived as a full-time writer. In the same year, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has written fourteen novels, five biographies and radio plays, television dramas. In 1990, she received a Cholmondeley Award for Poetry, and was given an Honorary D.Litt from the University of Leicester. She has been a Writer in Residence for the British Council in Singapore. Her Collected Poems and Translations (2002) was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her biography of Anna Akhmatova, Anna of All The Russias, was published in July 2005.

James Fenton was Oxford Professor of Poetry for the period 1994-1999. He has won several major awards, including The Whitbread Award for Poetry. He has worked as political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent, and is presently a columnist for The Guardian. He is the author several books such as Leonardo’s Nephew – Essays on Art and Artists and An Introduction to English Poetry. He has published several collections of poetry, such as The Memory of War and Out of Danger. In 2006, Penguin published his Selected Poems.

Mark Ford has published two collections of poetry, Landlocked and Soft Sift, and a study of the French writer Raymond Roussel. He has edited The New York Poets anthologies for Carcanet. His most recent book is A Driftwood Altar, a collection of his essays. He is a professor in the English Department at University College London.

Chris Kinsey’s poems have been widely published in magazines and anthologies including Reactions 3 & 4. Her first collection Kung Fu Lullabies, published by Ragged Raven Press, came out in 2004. She lives in Mid-Wales. She has read at Ledbury and Hay festivals. Chris is on the board of Ty Newydd, the National Writers’ Centre for Wales.

Daljit Nagra comes from a Sikh Punjabi background although he was born and raised in West London and Sheffield. His pamphlet Oh My Rub! was a Smith/Doorstop winner and was the first ever PBS Pamphlet Choice. His poem "Look We Have Coming to Dover!" won the 2004 Forward Prize for Best Individual poem. His debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! will be published by Faber & Faber on February 1st 2007.

Fiona Sampson has published fourteen books – poetry collections, philosophy of language and books on writing process – of which the most recent are The Distance Between Us (Seren, 2005) and Writing: Self and Reflexivity (Macmillan, 2005). Common Prayer (Carcanet) is forthcoming in June 2007. She is short-listed for the 2006 Forward Prize. She contributes to The Guardian and the Irish Times and is editor of Poetry Review.

Jean Sprackland's second collection, Hard Water (Cape, 2003), was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. CarolAnn Duffy praised the poems for their "exhilarating quality of freshness and truth. captured with relish in a textured and physical language". Jean's third book of poems is to be published by Cape in Autumn 2007.

Don’t forget that Life Lines, Oxfam’s best of British Poetry CD is still available.

Wine and refreshments will be available and all in return for a suggested donation of £8.

Please contact Martin Penny to confirm your places: Telephone: 020 7487 3570
email: oxfammarylebone at hotmail.com

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